Prevention Matters

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Breast-Feeding May Counter Some Effects of Childhood Cancer

Breast-feeding may help reduce some long-term negative side effects of cancer treatment in women who survived childhood cancer, according to a new study.


The findings suggest that making women aware of the benefits of breast-feeding should be part of routine recommendations for a post-cancer healthy lifestyle, said Susan W. Ogg and colleagues from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

WORST

Smoking, Obesity Slowing U.S. Life Expectancy Gains: Report


Longevity isn't increasing as fast in the United States as it is in other developed countries, says a new report that points a finger at high rates of smoking and obesity.


For 25 years, U.S. life expectancy at age 50 has increased, but more slowly than in most of the other 21 countries studied, including Japan and Australia, notes the report from the National Research Council, an arm of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Study Shows Building Up to 10,000 Steps a Day May Lead to Weight Loss and Better Insulin Sensitivity

Building up to 10,000 steps a day can help control weight and may reduce diabetes risk, suggests new research in the journal BMJ.

Of 592 middle-aged Australian adults, those who increased the number of steps they took during a five-year period and built up to 10,000 steps per day had a lower body mass index, less belly fat, and better insulin sensitivity than their counterparts who did not take as many steps daily during the same time period. Of 592 middle-aged Australian adults, those who increased the number of steps they took during a five-year period and built up to 10,000 steps per day had a lower body mass index, less belly fat, and better insulin sensitivity than their counterparts who did not take as many steps daily during the same time period.


WORST

Smoking 'causes damage in minutes', US experts claim


Smoking damages the body in minutes rather than years, according to research in the US. The report, published in Chemical Research in Toxicology, shows that chemicals which cause cancer form rapidly after smoking.

Scientists involved in the small-scale study described the results as a stark warning to people considering smoking. Anti-smoking charity Ash described the research as "chilling" and as a warning that it is never too early to quit.

The long term impact of smoking, from heart disease to a range of cancers, is well known. This study suggests the damage begins just moments after the first cigarette is smoked.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Study Finds Big Strides Made in Treating Leukemia, Lymphoma in Past Decade

Clinicians have made remarkable advances in treating blood cancers with bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants in recent years, significantly reducing the risk of treatment-related complications and death, a new study shows.


Between the early 1990s and 2007, there was a 41 percent drop in the overall risk of death in an analysis of more than 2,500 patients treated at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, a leader in the field of blood cancers and other malignancies.


WORST

Diabetes Epidemic Will Hit Half of U.S. by 2020


More than half of all Americans may develop diabetes or prediabetes by 2020, unless prevention strategies aimed at weight loss and increased physical activity are widely implemented, according to a new analysis.


These efforts could in theory also save about $250 billion in health care costs in the next 10 years, suggests the analysis published by UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization, a specialized center within UnitedHealth that focuses on health care reform issues.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

New research suggests that regular aspirin use among breast cancer patients may cut the risk of dying by 50 percent.  The Nurses’ Health Study surveyed 4,000 registered nurses and showed that taking aspirin two to five days a week cut the risk of dying by 71 percent, and reduced the risk of cancer spread by 60 percent.

Survey results were published in the Feb. 16 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.Researchers suspect that aspirin controls breast cancer by reducing inflammation in the body. However, the authors of the study call for more research to confirm the findings before aspirin is recommended for breast cancer alone.

At present, most women take aspirin for stroke and cardiovascular disease prevention. The breast cancer study demonstrates yet another preventive benefit of aspirin. Aspirin use could be a simple way for women to get protection for multiple health risks and they should be encouraged to take aspirin appropriately.

Drinking as little as two soft drinks a week appears to nearly double the risk of getting pancreatic cancer, according to a new study. ''People who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87% increased risk -- or nearly twice the risk -- of pancreatic cancer compared to individuals consuming no soft drinks," says study lead author Noel T. Mueller, MPH, a research associate at the Cancer Control Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. The study is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers& Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The beverage industry took strong exception to the study, calling it flawed and pointing to other research that has found no association between soda consumption and pancreatic cancer.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has updated its 2010 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule to include either of the FDA-approved human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for women ages 19 to 26 who have not been immunized previously against HPV. The updated recommendations appeared January 5 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to the schedule, either of two recommended HPV vaccines would optimally be given to girls between the ages of 11 and 12, but women up to age 26 may benefit from “catch-up” vaccination. Both HPV vaccines are most effective when given before a woman becomes sexually active.

New diagnoses for all types of cancer decreased almost 1% per year on average from 1999 to 2006, while cancer deaths decreased 1.6% per year from 2001 to 2006, according to a new government report.

The improvement is driven largely by declines in the big four cancer killers—lung, colon, prostate, and breast. Specialists attributed the declines to a reduction in the smoking rate, better and earlier detection, and improved treatments, particularly those that can be matched to a patient's specific tumor type. However, experts in the field warn that these successes could be wiped out in coming years by the nation's obesity crisis.

Don't forget the 34th annual Great American Smokeout will take place On November 19. Hosted by the American Cancer Society, this event each year promotes smoking cessation by encouraging smokers to give up smoking for a full day. This year's theme is "creating more birthdays,” since smokers who quit at age 35 gain an additional eight years and those who quit at 55 gain an average of an additional five years.

The Great American Smokeout website, www.cancer.org/greatamericans, provides excellent resources to aid in cessation techniques. They suggest that the first step taken should be to select a specific day to quit, within the next 30 days. The website also offers tip sheets and a “Quit Clock.”

Tobacco use is the single most preventable case of disease and death in the US. Partnership for Prevention and ACTTION Coalition are working to provide greater access to smoking cessation services. Many of these cessation programs include collaboration with the federal government and business employers to provide necessary access to cessation services for their employees. Please visit the Partnership for Prevention at www.prevent.org and the ACTTION Coalition at http://www.acttiontoquit.org/.

The following guest post is from Gloria Linnertz, an advocate in the lung cancer community who hails from Waterloo, Ill.:

We think we know about radon and lung cancer, but do we?

"Why was I so confident in my ignorance?" is the question I ask myself very often. In the months prior to my husband’s diagnosis of lung cancer, he mentioned to me that perhaps we should check our home for radon gas. Of course, I didn’t know anything about radon gas, but thought I did. I said that our home was relatively new—only twenty years old—and we had a tight basement. I was confident in my ignorance! Because radon cannot be detected through our senses, the only way to know if this silent killer is intruding into your home is to test. Recognizing what we can’t see, taste or smell is the problem.

In the year before his diagnosis, my husband Joe also said to me that he might have cancer. My husband had previously had two triple artery bypasses twenty years apart. Again, I said: "You don’t have cancer; you have heart disease." I thought he was just worrying too much. I thought I knew, but I didn’t. My husband Joe was a person to take preventive and safe measures. For 27 years he worked and exercised every day, kept a low fat, low cholesterol diet, and didn’t smoke. We had smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers in our home; and we didn’t burn candles. Joe only lived six weeks after his diagnosis of lung cancer that had spread to his liver and bones. We had been living with a radon level of 17.6 picocuries per liter of air in our home for 18 years.

Knowing the word radon and that it is a gas does not constitute knowledge of the element and its danger. You’ve heard the saying “A little knowledge can be dangerous.” I would change that to “A little knowledge can be deadly.” We, the general public, don’t know the facts. We must replace our limited knowledge with a full base of all the facts on radon.

Dr. Bill Field, an American Academic Scholar and Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology within the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa, who has recently been appointed to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health by President Obama, stated that protracted radon progeny exposure is the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States and the leading environmental cause of cancer mortality. It is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths among non-smokers.

Large and recent studies confirm that radon in homes increases lung cancer risks. Throughout our world up to 18% of the lung cancers can be attributed to indoor radon according to Professor Bill Angell, Chair of the Prevention and Mitigation Working Group of the World Health Organization’s International Radon Project. . Radioactive particles from radon gas are inhaled and attach to the air sacs in the lungs. These particles change the characteristic of the cells to cancer, and those mutated cells divide and multiply.

Radon is a radioactive gas that emanates from rocks and soils and tends to concentrate in enclosed spaces like houses. Soil gas infiltration is the most important source of residential radon and is present in every home (except ones on stilts) because of the way our homes are built and designed.

The analysis from recent studies in Europe, North America, and Asia indicates that lung cancer risk increases proportionally with increasing radon exposure according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There is no known threshold concentration below which radon is safe. On September 21, 2009 WHO, in view of the latest scientific data, released a reference level of 2.7 picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L) as a minimum level to minimize health hazards due to indoor radon exposure.

Radon is easy to measure. Every home needs to be tested for radon because each home has its own individual footprint on the earth. The homeowner cannot rely on the results of surrounding houses in the neighborhood. A short term (3-7 days) and/or long term (3-12 months) test kit can be used. Radon professionals can also perform the test with electronic devices. Test kits can be obtained from the radon hotline at (785) 532-6026 or email at Radon@ksu.edu or Web site: www.sosradon.org. Radon test kits can also be purchased at the local hardware stores.

It is easy to protect from radon gas. Addressing radon is important in new construction as well as existing buildings. Radon prevention strategies focus on sealing radon entry routes and using soil depressurization techniques to prevent the gas from entering the home. The cost is very reasonable. “How little it can cost to save a life!” is what I would say to someone who complained about the expense of a radon mitigation system installed by a licensed radon professional.

I write this in memory of my husband Joe --who was so very dear to me—my friend, my partner, my companion, my love. I ask you to test your home for radon during this month of November—National Lung Cancer Awareness Month. If your level is above 2.7, spend that little extra money to help save a life. That life may be someone you love.

BEST

Soccer-Players Kick off World Cup Anti-Malaria Fight



WORST

Many cancer survivors who smoke not advised about quitting

Hairdressers have a higher risk of cancer than the general population, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Authors of the study say improved ventilation systems in the hairdresser salons and implementation of hygiene measures aimed at mitigating exposure to potential carcinogens at work may reduce the risk.

Colorectal cancer patients who took aspirin had a much better chance of surviving than non-users, even after being diagnosed, according to a new study. The study, written by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is being published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. An abstract is available online.

"The improvements in outcomes were striking," wrote The New York Times' Roni Caryn Rabin. "Patients with colorectal cancer who regularly used aspirin before and after a diagnosis were almost one-third less likely to die of the disease than non-users. Patients who initiated aspirin use only after a diagnosis did even better and had half the risk of dying from the cancer, possibly because of differences in their tumors."

The patients were all being treated for nonmetastatic, or localized, cancers, and were followed for almost 12 years on average.

Increasing rates of HPV infection, spread through oral sex, is largely driving the rapid rise in oropharyngeal cancers, says Dr. Scott Lippman, who chairs the thoracic department at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Lippman says studies of oropharyngeal tumor tissue stored 20 years ago show that only around 20% are HPV positive. Today it is estimated that 60% of patients are infected with the virus.

A new study finds that in sharp contrast to the overall declining rates of colorectal cancer in the United States, incidence rates among adults younger than age 50 years are increasing. The authors theorize that these increases may be related to rising rates of obesity and changes in dietary patterns, including increased consumption of fast food.

An Ohio program to train beauticians about cancer screening was named Partnership for Prevention's Best Prevention Idea of the Week, while a recent vote by the Nevada Senate to soften a statewide smoking ban was named the Worst Prevention Idea of the week.

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org .


BEST

Beauticians learning cancer prevention

The Cleveland Clinic is training local beauticians about cancer screenings and research information. The program is targeted to African-American women. Salon employees were educated on how to give encouragement and guidance for clients who need mammograms and breast health information


WORST

Nevada Senators Vote to Ease the State’s Ban on Smoking

The Nevada Senate voted 16 to 5 on Friday to advance a measure that would soften a statewide smoking ban, putting the state on track to become the first in the nation to ease restrictions it had imposed on cigarette use in public spaces. The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, which took effect in 2007, bans smoking in any indoor space where minors may be present and where food is served. The new bill, which now moves to the Assembly for consideration, would allow taverns that offer food to permit smoking if they bar people under 21 from entry.